December 16th marked the end of The 9-Tap Tour Las Vegas region's second year of competition.  43 regular tournaments plus the Tour's first 3-Region event and the YEC 2017 brings the event total to 45! Sam's Townhosted the Year-End Championship with 42 Members vying to be the second YEC Champ for the Las Vegas region.  Before the competition could begin yesterday, some loose ends needed to be tied up, as well as recognizing our Top 5 bowlers in the Bowler of the Year competition.  

This year saw two of our Members surpass the 5 title mark.  Leon Pitcherhas a career total of 7 titles and Troy Rawling is not far behind with his 6 titles which he won in 2017!  Great accomplishments to say the least!  So it was nice to recognize these two with their championship shirts as wellVernon Nakamoto and Richard Read II pictured below. 

 

The next order of business was recognizing the Top 5 of the Bowler of the Year 2017 competition.  Our winner this year is Leon Pitcher.  Troy Rawling came in 2nd place followed by Daryl Jeffries in 3rd place, Brian Blackman in 4th and Greg Mamac in 5th. Brian and Greg will receive their plaques later, as Santa's elves had been drinking too much eggnog when they engraved their awards and there were some typos.  The Bowler of Year Ring will be presented to Leon at Wildfire Lanes on Jan 6, 2018.  Congratulations Leon on being Bowler of the Year for the 9-Tap Tour Las Vegas region.  

                                  

 

                           

 

Storm Bowling Products donated 4 bowling balls this year to be selected by the Top 10 in the BOY points list. I was able to get 2 out 4 pictures of the bowlers who chose the Storm ball has a prize.  Pictured below are Troy Rawling and Brian Blackman.  Leon Pitcher and Daryl Jeffries also chose the bowling ball. The remaining six bowlers will receive prizes provided by the 9-Tap Tour!  

                                      

2017 BOY RESULTS

 

Now on to the YEC Rundown......42 entries and over $4,400.00 paid out in cash and prizes for the Year-End Championship.  With 3 games of competition to start off the day, one winner from each pair of lanes (5) was seeded into the Round of 8 Match Play.  A 2nd Chance round was held for the 2nd place winners of each pair and the top 2 scores at large.  These 7 bowlers bowled one game and the Top 3 scores advanced to join the Top 8 to create our Top 8 Members. The Final Match came down to a battle of the "Js" as Josh Marlo squared off against Jermel Williams.  Josh had a 16 pin handicap advantage as the match began.  Jermel started off with a spare while Josh posted a strike.  For the next 4 frames each of them matched strike for strike.  When Jermel failed to strike in the sixth frame, Josh kept the pressure on with a strike.  Josh was able to continuing striking finishing his game with a 278 scratch score for a 302 hdcp score.  Jermel could not keep up as he lost his line to the pocket and finished with a 186.  Josh would take home awesome $1,462.00 for his near perfect efforts and Jermel pocketed a nice $731.00 for his 2nd place finish.  Congratulations to both of you!  Awesome bowling all day long!  

The Elite 8: 

 

Leon Pitcher, Albin Sutrick, Ken James, Josh Marlo, Guy Hirsimaki, Alan Meyer, Jason Arrington, Jermel Williams 

Elite 8 Scoring Results

Josh Marlo 300 def. Albin Sutrick 229

Leon Pitcher 246 def. Ken James 198

Jermel Williams 207 def. Jason Arrington 168

Alan Meyer 181 def. Guy Hirsimaki 143 

And then there were 4: 

Jermel Williams, Leon Pitcher, Josh Marlo, Alan Meyer 

Top 4 Scoring Results

Josh Marlo 266 def. Leon Pitcher 231

Jermel Williams 258 def. Alan Meyer 211 

Championship Match: 

 

Josh Marlo 302 def. Jermel Williams 186 

Year-End Champion Josh Marlo of Henderson, NV joined the tour back in March of 2016. He has only been bowling for two years atthe ripe old age of 19! He enjoyed watching his older sister bowl in high school so he decided to take up the sport.  Inspired byJason Belmonte's two handed delivery and now a devout fan of PBA bowler Jesper Svensson (also a two handed bowler), Josh certainly has a natural talent for the game.  He prefers to use urethane equipment as he used Storm's Pitch Black in the qualifying round and then switched to the Pitch Blue in the Match Play rounds.  His ball driller of choice is Jon Burrows at JB Bowling Supply.  While his family was not on hand to cheer him on, fellow Member Mo Clark was in Josh's corner to take up that honor.  The prize money is ear marked for more bowling equipment and christmas presents.  Josh is planning on joining the Air Force next year to become a drone camera specialist and hopefully being a part of the Air Force bowling team.  He also expressed his thanks to the 9-Tap Tour staff for running the Tour in Las Vegas.  Thanks Josh and congratulations on your second title coming as the YEC 2017 Champion!